Portrait Processing

I've just been exploring the new tools that the latest version of Picasa 3.9 has made available - and also the Portrait Professional Studio Suite... Some nice effects while revisiting some of my images from a portrait session in the studio of multi-media artists Richard James Allen and Karen Pearlman.

Artist's Statement:

I went to a writers soiree last Sunday organised by Beth Yahp of a reading by students and teachers of memoir and travel writing. After hearing some of the fascinating stories and motivations of the people I met there, I was inspired to pen an 'Artists Statement', defining some of what I do when I engage with photography

Beth also announced the launch of her latest Writer's Trekk to Nepal in October 2011. I'm very tempted to go, if it's not drawing too long a bow to say that I want to 'write stories with my camera'...

"When I practice photography, I am engaging in a creative space in much the same way as I might practice Yoga or meditation. It is an entry into a sublime space of contemplation. Which is not to say it is always quiet or retiring: sometimes it is fast and active, strident and joyful; and at other times it may be about hours of waiting, silently, observing the light. Or it might be all at once: playful, serious, determined, engaging, free. Outward and inward. It is an action that moves me through all states of mind, all states of being - and challenges me to transcend. In the moment that I make a photograph, I am not attempting to 'capture' anything. When I press the shutter, it is very often to express appreciation for something I have seen, or more often something I have felt: a connection; a presence; a moment of being. It is an applause for what IS. When I press the shutter, it is, for me, the sound of one hand clapping."

  

Rives - Performance Poet Extraordinaire!

I have just discovered John G Rives - a very clever, very funny performance poet.
Rives is a performer, a storyteller and an author. He has appeared on multiple seasons of HBO's Def Poetry Jam and was a member of the Def Poetry international tour group. He has made multiple appearances at the international thinkers TED Conference and has published several pop-up books for children.

Here's his rap on YouTube about Deaf Poetry:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbtVepS53t0




Here's his "Mockingbird" remix of the 2006 TED conference
http://www.ted.com/talks/rives_remixes_ted2006.html



Here's his rap on TED.com on the conspiracy theory of Four In The Morning:
http://www.ted.com/talks/rives_on_4_a_m.html



And a cerebral poem interpreting emoticons...
http://www.ted.com/talks/rives_tells_a_story_of_mixed_emoticons.html


enjoy! :))